HOUSTON — Jason Kokrak has a newfound love for Texas. Whether or not Texans reciprocate those feelings is a completely different matter.
Born in North Bay, Ontario, and reared near Cleveland, Kokrak won his second PGA Tour event in the Lone Star state in less than six months on Sunday, taking a pair of beloved University of Texas stars down in the process.
Back in May, Kokrak captured his second victory by going eye-to-eye with Jordan Spieth in the final round at Colonial Country Club, capturing the Charles Schwab Challenge.
On Sunday at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open, another former Longhorn — Scottie Scheffler — held the lead at the turn and a legion of burnt orange-wearing patrons were following along at Memorial Park Golf Course, hoping to see his first victory.
Instead, Kokrak got hot at the right time, making a quartet of consecutive birdies on the back nine to finish at 10 under, while others faltered. Scheffler and Martin Trainer both held the lead for a spell in the final hours of the event, but couldn’t match the birdie barrage from Kokrak, a Xavier University product.
Scheffler — who has yet to secure a Tour victory, yet sits at No. 21 in the Official World Golf Ranking — made bogeys on Nos. 10, 11 and 14 to fall back in the pack. He did make birdies on two of his final three holes, however, and finished T-2 at 8 under.
Trainer, meanwhile, came to Houston ranked 1,310th and had made just one cut in seven months, but played valiantly and finished in the hunt.
Kevin Tway, who struggled through a 73 in the third round, rebounded on Sunday and although he never led, he finished with a birdie putt on the final hole to end up in a second-place tie with Scheffler. Kramer Hickok posted a 69 on Sunday to finish third at 7 under.
Trainer’s only victory came at the 2019 Puerto Rico Open — his only top-10 on the PGA Tour in his career — but he was still in contention until a bogey at No. 17. Unfortunately for him, he also missed a par putt on No. 18 and dropped to T-5 at 6 under.
Meanwhile, Matthew Wolff, who was just a single shot off the lead to enter the final round, struggled to start, but made the shot of the day with a 9-iron on the 187-yard par-3 ninth hole. Wolff’s shot bounced before the hole and rolled in, marking his first ace on the PGA Tour. He didn’t make a serious charge, however.